Healing in the Hallway

It's been a long time since I've blogged...

I have REALLY good intentions.

But, sometime just before I posted that last blog, I got broken. I felt both hopeless and trapped on this ginormous, closing-in-on-me... I'm-too-far-in-to-turn-back-now continent.

So I've been healing.
With really good people around me. And really great conversations with God. And one really long walk on a mountain in Swaziland.
And I'm going to Uganda in less than a week... because you believed with me. And I think there's more for me to learn, hear and grow in there.

I don't quite have words yet.

There is a story to tell you. But not today.

Today I went to the hospital, where the hallway was full of (unattended) children that have lived in hopeless circumstances and are trapped inside of broken bodies.

They are healing too.

Every day is not a good day in the hospital. And not every day has a story to tell.

But there's something about a lot of healing bodies being together...
Even if you're just sitting on the dirty hallway floor.
There doesn't have to be words, but a melody usually comes out. A healing song.

When bodies sit and heal together, and joyful noises are shared, sometimes strength comes out of the most unexpected places. Sometimes in the silliest ways.

It could be an album cover.

Rachel cannot walk on her own right now, but she
was NOT going to miss out on a photo bomb!

Sweet Selina has been in the hospital since March with
severe burns. And still smiles like THIS.

perfection. 

The Wheels of the Kingdom...

Today (and yesterday), I loaded up a grocery cart with the basic needs I am so familiar shopping for and delivered them to another family whose babies are crying because there’s just not enough food.

Today I grieved with and offered all that I had within me to my friend, the pastor’s wife from my local church, when she told me she’d been with a family from our church for the past two days. There was a funeral this morning for the family’s 19-month-old baby who had been poisoned by a witchcraft-practicing neighbor.

Today I was greeted with a, “MAMA KACY!!!” as soon as I stepped into the hospital because one of the newest little boys in the children’s ward already knew me from play-dates and feeding programs.

Today I parked in front of Mama Charity’s temporary shack to find her and her friend Busi out in the sun, babies scattered around them and tools in hand, doing physical labor to try to make enough money to feed those babies tonight.

And that was all before noon!

My tires know every bump and pothole on the roads to the hospital, the grocery stores, and countless shacks. I’ve worn those roads down with heavy loads of people and provision. But, even with all of those trips bearing all of those good things, I wonder if I’m just spinning my wheels.

Is there more to this than meeting these immediate needs with loaves of bread and wiping tears off cheeks?

I want to bring the Source of never-ending daily bread and forever-ended sorrow.

He says to pray for His Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven.

That sounds all-inclusive to me.

It sounds like He says to call down heaven even to the places on earth covered with dusty potholes, empty bellies and small caskets. Even to an empty cottage on a lonely night when all you can hear are crickets and questions.

The wheels of the Kingdom don’t just spin.

They propel. They compel. They move.

The have to move.

Because I can’t fill up another shopping cart or dodge one more pothole if nothing’s moving. If eternity dripped with tears, what would the point of it all be?

I’ve been in a spiritual wheel-spinning, motion-going kind of rut for a couple of weeks. I’ve felt like everybody else’s lives are moving on, going somewhere, and that I’m stuck in this Africa-sized pothole where money stays short, babies stay hungry, and birth certificates never come.

The thief comes to steal my perspective, kill my will to keep going, and destroy my ability to see where He’s leading me.

But the wheels of the Kingdom go round and round.

They go to the ends of the earth and to the depths of my loneliness and fears.

There’s a highway being prepared.

It has no place for the wheels of sorrow or suffering to spin.

It’s not paved with loneliness, shortsightedness, or questions.

“And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness… only the redeemed will walk there… Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” (Isaiah 35: 8, 9b, 10b)

I’ll keep driving those same roads – because He says to. And because I still love it. But I have to look for more there. Or my days, my spirit and even my hugs and kisses send me deeper into this rut.

I’m compelled to keep driving down Old Plaston Road until it is called the Way of Holiness.

I’m surrendering my spinning wheels for something out of my hands and understanding.

On November 3 – 13, my Community Development team leaders and I are exchanging wheels for wings and trusting God all the way to Jinja, Uganda.

We’ve heard Him say there’s more for us – there’s more for the way we live and love at Ten Thousand Homes. He’s ready to trust us with the keys for what’s next, and I believe it’s something so much deeper than a pothole.

We are going to Uganda to serve, support and learn from an organization called Orphans Know More. The awesome team at Ten Thousand Homes is making it possible for us to step outside of our daily lives for 10 days and to trust God to pave a little bit more of His highway… to fill in a pothole or two.

Please pray for us to have eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts that can receive what more God has for us.

Pray that even now I can step out of this rut and into the faith I need for the rest of this day and for this Uganda trip.

Pray for us to bring back what God has for us and to start next year with more.

Please also pray for the practical details of our trip. We have airplane tickets… and that’s all! Carla, John and I each need to raise $850 more for in-country travel, accommodation, meals, etc. We have invested what we have, and now believe for about $2500 MORE.

If you would like to be a part of paving the way through giving toward our trip, you can give directly from my blog to my PayPal account or, for tax-deductible giving, you can give online at www.tenthousandhomes.org. Please make sure you write in on your donation as well as letting me know that the funds are designated for “Community Development Uganda Trip”.

Thank you for believing more for me, for Ten Thousand Homes, for South Africa, and for us doing this together.

When You Give A Kid A Water Bottle...

Summer is coming! And it was hot yesterday.

I was so excited to pop into Mama Charity's yard for a surprise ice cream cone party! 

All photos by Laura Uechi

It was amazing how fast that ice cream dripped, dribbled and disappeared. 

It was a huge hit for the 5 minutes it lasted!

Kevin after ice cream.

When we were all sufficiently sticky and sugary, I sat down in the dust in front of Mama Charity to share Scripture. I told her what God had been telling me. And asked what He'd been telling her. We flipped from Daniel to Hebrews to Haggai, and we remembered together the Kingdom that cannot be shaken. 

She was having a rough day, and the Truth was hard to digest as she sat in a borrowed yard, in front of her borrowed shack with nothing but 5 kids to her name. But we prayed together, and we prayed boldly. I believe she got a little taste of Love as she listened and licked that ice cream cone. 

After all of yesterday's sweetness, I marched into the feeding program today to find Mama Charity there waiting for me. And when I say I marched... I mean, I stomped. 

Stressed. Worried. Anxious. Overwhelmed. 

I told her about it. And that I needed help remembering what we had just read... what I had just preached to her in her yard 24 hours before. 

When I came home today, after all that stomping and after feeding almost 300 children, Laura shared the pictures she had taken from the previous day's ice cream party. I loved what I saw... Because while Mama Charity and I were drinking in the Word, Kevin and Karabo had snuck away to the corner of the yard with my water bottle and were having their own little party. 

It was just a water bottle. 

The same old one I carry with me all the time.

But so many different delights came from an almost unnoticed moment in the yard. 

They played and played and played. 

They laughed and celebrated, and it had nothing to do with the big ice cream cone surprise. 

I want to live that kind of life and have that kind of faith. 

I choose the kind of life that's greatest joys and deepest drinks come from everyday moments with your family in the corner of the yard. The places where that belly-laugh bubbles out uninvited in the most unnoticeable moments. 

I stomp and pout and forget and worry when I'm waiting for the ice cream parties.

And as soon as I finish the ice cream, I get thirsty.

I'm taking life lessons from Kevin and Karabo today. Their circumstances say they are bound to poverty. Their eyes, their smiles and their hearts say they were carved in the image of Freedom and Love.

Beautiful brown eyes sparkle with delight, not at the ice cream, but at the one bringing it to them.

Cravings reach beyond the scrumptious gift, and long to share it with the one who gave it. 

This isn't (really) as bad as it looks... or maybe it's exactly what it looks like:
Given and I racing to see who can get to the ice cream on the spoon first.

No worrying about how to pay back, but instead reaching for the water to meet the next need. 

Simply because they know that all of my resources are theirs too. 

It wasn't just a water bottle. Inside there was enough joy for that day. And there is satisfaction for every day. 

***Another special thank you to Laura Uechi for giving your time and your talent for His glory.